Major spoilers ahead for Club Kid. Go see this movie before reading!
We're coming towards the end of 2026, and it's been a solid year for movies. I've seen plenty of them, but I've got to say that Jordan Firstman's Club Kid is my favorite film of the year. The new A24 movie tells a modern, queer story not unlike Big Daddy, where a 30-something party promoter in NYC suddenly finds out he's got a 10-year-old son. The pair find a way to bond, in a movie that's chock full of laughs, tears, and authentic LGBTQ+ representation. I had to ask Firstman about the movie's ending, and the decision not to show protagonist Peter and his son Arlo reuniting onscreen.
I loved how Club Kid portrayed queer nightlife, but the real heart of the story is about the father/son relationship between Peter and Arlo. After they develop a true love for each other, Arlo ends up taken away and sent back across the pond to England. It's truly heartbreaking, and after failing to get custody and a year-long time jump, Peter gets his first contact with his son via a phone call. This final scene absolutely destroyed me, and as you can see in the video above, I asked Firstman (who wrote, directed, and starred in the movie) why we hear Arlo but never actually see him during the call. He explained to me:
We're with Peter from moment one of this movie, and I felt that I wanted the audience to feel what Peter felt. And so when you hear his voice for the first time and you haven't seen him in so long, like, you feel what Peter feels. Like, that's why he's crying. It's like, you know, when [Oscar] says, 'Good cry or bad cry?' It's just like a release. It's just emotional. You know what I mean? And sometimes you can't put words to, like, what the emotion is. I have visions of like, when I see my ex for the first time that I haven't seen since we broke up. I'm gonna, like, I don't know. When I think about it, I start crying. I don't know, people probably feel this way with death too.
Honestly, he's not wrong. While it would have been satisfying to see Peter visiting Arlo in the U.K., or even seeing the latter's coverage in their phone call scene, it might have cheapened the emotional impact of Club Kid's ending. Instead, we stay in Peter's POV the entire time, as he's supported by Diego Calva's Oscar. Firstman offers an emotionally devastating performance, with the mixture of joy, loss, and hope all registering on his face at the same time.
It's heartwarming watching Peter and Arlo connect with each other throughout Club Kid's 121-minute runtime, which makes their separation and year-long span of no contact all the more tragic. At that point of the movie the audience (myself included) is invested in their relationship, and likely would have loved to see them back together again. Later in our conversation, Firstman spoke more about his decision not to give us that resolution, telling me:
It's grief, you know what I mean? And, like, so, so I just wanted the audience to be there with Peter and, like, and, you know, there was, there were also fights about that with, like one of my producers really wanted me to shoot coverage of Arlo. And I was like, 'No.' I was like, 'It just defeats the entire point. Like, you have to... You... The audience can't ever see him again if Peter doesn't.'
Firstman has made fans laugh through his performances in English Teacher and I Love LA (the latter of which is streaming with a HBO Max subscription), but his dramatic work in Club Kid's third act is remarkable. The fact that he both directed and wrote the brilliant dramedy is even more impressive. While I would have loved to see the movie's two lead characters get a reunion, I respect his creative decision to curtail this, with the audience never getting a chance to see Arlo again after he's taken away.
Club Kid is in theaters now as part of the 2026 movie release list. While it's in limited release, I highly recommend finding a screener near you. Although I'd advise bringing some tissues along just in case.
